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Planning Mechanisms to Support the Supply of Affordable Housing Development

There are a number of tools available to governments to support housing affordability. These tools include managing land releases, income support programs, grants, special projects, housing subsidies and targeted loans.

With respect to the built form, affordable housing development refers to much more than the cost of rent or the purchase price of a dwelling. Other design issues need to be considered which impact on housing affordability in the longer term, such as proximity to services and transport, energy efficiency, the range of housing types on offer and ways to target affordability to different groups (e.g. first home buyers, workforce housing and migrants). Providing affordable housing only has short-terms impacts unless these associated issues are also addressed.

To realise potential solutions to housing affordability, the following five key factors are significant:

  • availability of inexpensive and well located land
  • ability to obtain a high dwelling yield per allotment (e.g. medium/high density residential allotments)
  • ability to limit dwelling sizes (e.g. promotion of one bedroom dwellings / apartments)
  • ability to control the resale value of dwellings originally constructed for the affordable housing market
  • ability to retain any public subsidies and/or assets used for the affordable housing program for further public housing.

The report prepared by URPS in association with Norman Waterhouse Lawyers and Southern Research Centre of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Planning Mechanisms to Support the Supply of Affordable Housing Development by the Private Sector, addresses a range of barriers to housing affordability while also promoting a number of robust solutions.

Innovation is important to us at URPS. We like to 'push boundaries’ where appropriate. It keeps us on our toes and delivers the best possible outcomes for our clients who have to adapt to constant change. This is why we take such pride in winning PIA Awards – they provide evidence of our success in striving for innovation.

We were delighted to receive a commendation at the PIA SA 2011 Awards for Planning Excellence for the Mount Barker Town Centre Community Engagement Project – our 15th PIA Award/Commendation over the past 9 years.

A genuinely collaborative project, staff from Mount Barker Council worked closely with the URPS team to deliver a range of engagement techniques carefully targeted to the various audiences. According to the awards publication, "the judges were impressed by the extent of the community engagement process and the use of a wide variety of consultation mediums, including social media, a youth ‘walk out and talk out’ session and a series of 'speak out’ sessions".

We were also delighted to celebrate Marcus Rolfe's elevation to the position of Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia at the Awards evening. The elevation recognises Marcus' ongoing contribution to the planning profession.

URPS Director Nicole Halsey has recently been appointed as a member of the Premier's Climate Change Council and the Board of Renewables SA.

The primary function of the Climate Change Council is to provide independent advice to the Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change about matters related to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. The Council also takes a leading role in consulting with business, the environment / conservation sector and the wider community on climate change issues.

Key elements of the charter of Renewables SA include:

We look forward to supporting Nicole in these significant roles.

URPS and Natalie Fuller and Associates, together with a team of dedicated staff and volunteers at the City of Salisbury, recently held a "Street Talk" event outside the Len Beadell library for the Salisbury Town Centre Renewal Project.

Over 500 people participated, providing their views on what they like about the Town Centre, what can be improved and how they would like to see it develop in the future.

The Manager Urban Development at the City of Salisbury, Harry Pitrans, described this as a "very successful day for the City of Salisbury", also praising "the opportunity we provided to support the team of engagement volunteers" and our "professionalism and fun during the day".

We would also like to extend our thanks to the engagement team of Brian Pledger, Janine Harding, Jo Lasham, Julie Fyfe, Kate Naumann, Michelle Tucker, Tammie Hamilton and Hiroe Terao.

This type of successful community engagement will have a significant positive impact on the development and delivery of the Town Centre Renewal Project.